Mark Copier | The Grand Rapids PressBusiness perspective: Felix Pytlinske Jr., shown in his Robinson Township store, says break-ins at gun shops make headlines but account for a only a fraction of illegal guns.

He doesn’t know, he jokes, if he was named for his father — or the shop.

But he knows it’s a tough business. Three burglaries in three years resulted in the loss of nearly 170 firearms

The thefts nearly did him in. They also put a lot of guns on the street.

Pytlinske said police suggested, not so delicately, he close his shop after burglars took 76 firearms in a 2008 break-in.

He scoffed.

Break-ins at gun shops make headlines, but the stolen firearms put only a fraction of illegal guns on the street, he said.

“The number of guns in gun shops today is nothing compared to guns in private residences,” Pytlinske noted.

Still, gun stores are popular targets for thieves. On the street, stolen weapons are automatic cash, an easy way to fetch a few hundred dollars.

There they follow the same path as other illegal firearms, often disappearing for years before turning up in a drug search, a traffic stop, or pointed at someone else.

Many times they remain in West Michigan. Others have been found in Saginaw, Detroit and beyond.

No one has been caught in the 2008 burglary at Felix’s. Of the 76 weapons, the only one recovered was a .223-caliber assault rifle robbers apparently dropped not far from the scene, according to state police reports.

But in 2007, Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies arrested three suspected gang members from the Holland area for break-ins at Felix’s and another shop, Gold Coast Outfitters.

About 50 guns were taken from the businesses. Police recovered about half.

“We found that most of the guns turned up on the east side of the state, Saginaw and Detroit,” said Ottawa Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Bennett.

YOU CAN HELP

Got a tip? Call it in

The Press is joining with Silent Observer to help fund a gun-tip hotline.

Offering a tipIf you have information about a lost or stolen gun, call Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. Tipsters stay strictly anonymous.

The hotline will pay $250 to callers with information leading to the arrest of someone with an illegal gun.

Making a donation
Checks can be made out to Silent Observer, earmarked for the “gun-tip hotline” and mailed to: Silent Observer, Box 230321, Grand Rapids MI 49523, or go online.